Topic: End of the Great War 100 years later

[GamesPoet]

Here is the Lochnagar crater in 2016 ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJu8b8oUbkc&pbjreload=101

This would be neat to see!

[GamesPoet]

One sector of the Battle of Verdun ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzDs76dYSO4

The before and after photos of Fort Douaumont are quite interesting in that there was not much remaining of the place after so many shells pounded it for around ten months.

There are remains of 125,000 French and Germans at the ossuary near the fort, and another 15,000 in the cemetery.

[GamesPoet]

Enjoyed seeing this video ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H80QibkGv94

This is the Hohenzollern Redoubt area where the British and Canadians were fighting the Germans.

I like how this guy uses maps of the trenches and various photos of the times. 

[GamesPoet]

And this is the area of  Bellewaarde Ridge where there was a battle in 1915, north of Hooge Crater ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsujbJCElzs

It is amazing to see how short a distance the British moved their lines forward as a result of the battle when seeing the videos taken over the site.

[Artobans Ghost]

Interesting video. Just reminds me of how crazy humanity is. There are lots of ‘what if the Germans won ww2’ but any idea what Europe would look like if England decided to stay at home for ww1? The governments were very much the same sort of pompous bozos running around. This war precipitated the 2nd. The Russians were beat in Ww1 but it would be interesting to see what would have happened ‘if’

[GamesPoet]

When that guy talked of the casualties, then puts that together with the British taking the German lines across a small field or two there, and then the lines remained that way for almost two years ... yep, totaly crazy.  I have not nearly studied WW1 as much as WW2 or many others, and every time I learn a bit more, it was just totally wacked.

[GamesPoet]

I was reminded of this thread when I saw a program this evening that reviewed the ancestors of Brian Cox.

As it turns out his grandfather, who died at age 50, and seemingly as a result of the injuries received in WW1, was a member of a battalion of the Black Watch Highlanders who served in a battle where they were gassed.  His symptoms, recorded in more than one location were coughing and lung related.  After the initial gassing and hospitalization, it seems he returned to service, and continued to fight through the rest of the war until being discharged just before it ended.  And ... he won 4 medals from his service during WW1.

Amazing.

[Sharkbelly]

Indeed, the full effects of war sometimes don't show up for many years. US Vietnam veterans are dealing with a whole host of health problems that are likely caused in part by exposure to Agent Orange and other chemicals.

[GamesPoet]

Here is some colorized film taken during the Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918 ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2czhihfGyoo

 ... it seems much more real when shown in color.

[GamesPoet]

Been doing some research on uniforms of early war French and German soldiers as I have begun painting some figures for this era, and some skirmish wargaming that I am preparing to do.

Came across this showing some German uniforms done by re-enactors for both early and late war, plus it has a good bit at the tail end regarding life inside a late war German bunker/pill box ...

 https://www.c-span.org/video/?448592-1/german-world-war-soldiers

[KTG17]

Years ago I had a great book on WWI sitting out and a friend saw it and commented, "I thought WWI was the boring war and WWII was the more exciting one." I replied, WWII had some great villains and technology, but WWI had elements that stand out to me too. It certainly wasn't boring, but I can see why its overshadowed by WWII."

When I first started reading about WWII, and this was when I was literally the 3rd thing I got into when I was a little kid after dinosaurs and star wars, I focused on the tanks and airplanes, and the battles. It took me many years to realize that the most interesting thing about the war was not the technology and battles, but the politics and economics behind the war that drove the technology and battles. I feel the same about WWI.

In Dan Carlin's coverage of the war, he called Gavrilo Princip one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and I agree with him. He might be THE most influential. He set in motion WWI, which set in motion WWII years later, which in turn set in motion the Cold War, which in turn the rise of terrorism, and the environment we all grew up in.